Peter Merton’s Private Mint: A Fortune That Didn’t Belong Yet

Peter Merton is headed for ruin. Fifty thousand dollars has vanished from his office safe, his employer wants repayment, and the police believe the thief has already disappeared into South America. Then a strange sheet of plastic appears inside the empty safe claiming to be a message from the Thirtieth Century.

At first, Peter assumes it’s a prank. But when books and newspapers placed inside the safe begin returning as stacks of cash, disbelief gives way to temptation. Soon Peter is buying expensive suits, driving a Cadillac, and imagining a future far beyond anything he once expected. The mysterious historians of the future want artifacts from the twentieth century, and Peter is more than willing to trade yesterday’s magazines for tomorrow’s money.

Harlan Ellison keeps the story moving at a fast, playful pace while quietly tightening the pressure around Peter’s good fortune. Every new exchange creates another problem. Treasury agents begin tracing impossible bills back to Peter. His co-workers grow suspicious. And the machine that seemed like a miracle starts looking more like borrowed luck with an expiration date.

What makes Peter Merton’s Private Mint so entertaining is the collision between ordinary business ambition and impossible technology. Peter isn’t a scientist or an adventurer. He’s a young executive trying to save his career, impress a beautiful secretary, and stay ahead of men who think he’s either a criminal or insane. The story turns a simple office wall safe into the center of a financial nightmare.

Harlan Ellison sold his first professional stories while still a teenager and quickly became one of the most recognizable names in speculative fiction. His work appeared in magazines including Amazing Stories, Galaxy, If, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.